Mason loves his sunglasses. He puts them on and takes them off all by himself.

Sometimes he tries to put them on daddy and pokes me in the eye.

Well, happy Monday and happy Snowy Day to everyone. Due to project “garage organization”, the garage is so messed up now that I can’t even get one car in it now. It snowed yesday and then froze last night. Since the metal on my Tracker is thinner than most grades of paper, the door lock froze shut, causing me to have to climb in through the passenger door. It was still frozen by the time I got to work. I’m hoping it thaws sometime today. Slept in yesterday after staying up late watching all 49 seconds of the Mike Tyson fight Saturday night, and took lots of naps and worked in the garage a little too. Then we watched the emmies. Why am I typing all this in? I have no idea. My weekend, like this post, was boring.

Wow, this week is flying by FAST. How was your 3 day weekend? Saturday I did a lot of running around town and picked up about ten DVDs while I was out (to stack on top of the 20 or so I haven’t seen yet!). Then we spent parts of Saturday and Sunday helping Susan’s sister move, who coincidently just bought a house just around the corner from us! Got to eat at Wing Stop finally this weekend — if you like wings, then this is the place for you, because they don’t serve anything else (other than rolls and french fries). I thought charging .50 extra cents for some Ranch dressing was a bit petty, but I got over it pretty quick, and the wings were great. Next time, I’ll bring my own Ranch. Monday I did break some ground on operation garage cleaning or whatever I named it. Got one set of 6’x4’x2′ shelves put up in the garage. You wouldn’t believe what a difference it already makes! I bought three sets, so once all three of them are up I think it’ll be awesome!

Tuesday I came home from work and took a nap, woke up, ate dinner, and took another nap. Woke up from nap number two and caught the majority of the Lakers/Rockets game. Fell asleep during overtime. At least I feel rested today, maybe I’ll try assembling shelf unit number two this evening.

Almost quitting time here at work. My eyes are burning from staring at a monitor all day, my back is sore from this government issue chair, and my butt is sweaty. Ok, too much information.

I think this weekend’s plan involves Project Organized Garage, or POG for short (every good project needs an acronym, learned that at work). I need shelves, I need cleaning, I need organization … I need help. There are boxes in the garage that literally haven’t been opened since we lived in the trailer (4 moves/8 years ago). I will be vigilant in my cleaning efforts this weekend.

All of Susan’s crap must go!

… over spilled milk, right?

Only, that ain’t milk. It’s paint. A gallon of it, which somehow fell off the kitchen counter while we were at work yesterday.

As with all our fiascos, I’m open for suggestions.

Mason’s doing 110% better. He’s still getting his nebulizer treatments, but it’s no big deal, we do them at home, and he’s so used to them now that he usually either watches TV or just falls asleep. They only take five minutes to do. Right now we’re still doing them four times a day, then it goes to three, then two, and then we’re done.

Went to the flea market last weekend and picked up a bunch of DVDs, mostly of movies I’ve been wanting to see but haven’t got around to renting yet. Curse of the Jade Scorpion, the Mothman Prophecies, A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), Blair Witch 2, and a couple of others found their way into the pile. Hey, at $8 per DVD, I’m a sucker.

Unfortunately due to Mason’s flu/pneumonia encounter, our trip to Chicago is being cancelled this weekend, which is a big bummer. It seems like I’m always looking forward to the next three day weekend, and now here’s one and I have nothing planned. The high temperatures for Friday thru Monday are 56, 47, 45, and 47, with 100% chance of rain for Friday. That pretty much rules out any motorcycle-based entertainment this weekend.

I’ll bet it’s cold in Chicago anyway (grumble).

We got home late Tuesday night from the hospital. Wednesday went pretty smooth, but Thursday came and Mason started feeling worse again. He quit drinking fluids and started “quivering”. We called the Doctor and she said she was quote “very concerned” about his state. Fortunately, he broke through it and seems to be on the upswing now.

Not a lot of plans for the weekend, Mason won’t feel like doing much so Susan and I will be around the house taking turns watching him (to give each other some breaks). I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (great) and Austin Power’s Goldmember (dumb) this week. Due to bad timing on my part, I just sent all my Netflix rentals back, leaving me with nothing to watch over the weekend. Hopefully, cable will fill that particular void in my life this weekend — plus, this Sunday night is the NBA All Star Game.

We’re home! (More on that at the bottom.)

The Respitory Specialist Mason was seeing is the same one that I have an appointment with in a couple of weeks, so on top of no sleep and a sick kid, the doctor’s office did us a favor by moving my appointment to this afternoon, so I could just walk over have a meeting with the doctor about my allergies.

I guess in theory it made sense, but none of us have had any sleep, we’re all cranky, and it probably could and should have waited until another day. Regardless, I went over for the meeting. After having me fill out an 8 page questionaire and answering a million questions about my sinus drainage (what color is the drainage? How much comes out?), they did an Allergy test. For those that have never had one, it’s a blast! You should just volunteer for one for kicks next time you’re in. The first thing they do is get this contraption that sticks your skin 8 times. Each one has just a trace of everything you might be allergic to. The high tech idea here is that whatever you’re allergic to will swell up. Genius! So, after 43 pinpricks to the back, the entire test comes up negative. So, they go to the “more sensitive” test — 14 shots to the arm. 8 to one, 6 to the other, pumping more allergy causing chemicals under the skin. Nothing. So, after 43 pricks to the back and 14 shots to the arm, they tell me I’m not allergic to anything. So, on top of being sleepless, hungry, and irritable, tack on 57 more holes in my body than I had this morning. From the same people who invented the lobotomy …

Mason, on the other hand, is feeling quite well. His oxygen level was at 99, which was the final thing they were testing. We’re dreading the home breathing treatments we’ll be required to give him, but any treatment at home is better than any treatment at the hospital.

Well, we’ve been in the hospital for a month now … ok, it’s just been 24 hours actually, but it seems like it’s been forever. Sleeping in a chair last night was a bitch, let me tell you. Well, actually, I *can’t* tell you, because after two hours of it I snuck out to the car and went home to catch a few Zzz’s.

One of the funniest things has been the hospital’s food selection for Mason. The only two choices are, “baby food” or “regular food”. Well, Mason doesn’t eat baby food any longer, so we told them “regular food.” For Mason’s first meal at the hospital, they brought him steak, a baked potato, brocoli and cheese, a roll, and some pudding. Oh, and a side salad, complete with cucumber and tomato chunks. Well, Mason liked the roll and pudding. We found the hospital’s secret stash later and stole some cans of fruit cocktail and peaches which he actually ate. Steak? For a one year old? When one of the nurses asked if he liked his steak, I told her, “well, he hasn’t mastered a STEAK KNIFE yet …” Dumbasses.

Late last night, they said Mason’s oxygen levels were “getting low”, so they hooked him up to the ol’ oxygen tube. I was laughing the entire time. So far, he’s disabled the electronic bed, reprogrammed half the machines in the room, and taken off every sensor they’ve stuck to him. So when the nurse told me that Mason would “forget about the tube stuck up his nose,” I just laughed. I asked another nurse, “have you all ever done this before?” Mason’s breathing treatments consist of him having to inhale his medicine for five minutes, so it is administered to him via a gas mask breaking apparatus. The nurse got onto me yesterday and said, “he’s not getting enough medicine because he’s fighting so much,” to which I responded, “I’ll have a talk with the ol’ one year old later and try and explain to him that you’re not trying to KILL him.” When I asked if they had ever done this before, I was only half being sarcastic.

Mason might get to go home tonight but I’ve found hospitals are a lot like hotels, if you’re there after 3pm they figure you’ve already paid up for the night so you “might as well stay.” Oh boy, more salisbury steak and brocoli with cheese, yum yum! Hopefully we’re looking at going home Wednesday morning. Mason’s sounding much better. He’s still got a little raspiness when they listen with a stethiscope, but for the most part he’s acting and feeling just fine.

Oh, and he had the oxygen tube out in twelve seconds.

Ok, so it turns out, Mason *was* really sick. At 3:00pm today, the doctor checked Mason into Mercy Hospital for pneumonia and the flu. Whee! He has to be here 24 hours, so during his nap, Susan ran home and grabbed the essentials … a change of clothes, a couple of Dr. Peppers, two Teletubbies tapes, and a laptop. Mason’s doing fine, the breathing treatments are breaking up all the junk in his lungs and he’s feeling better already.

If you need to reach Susan or myself, try Mercy Hospital, room 565, or either of our cell phones.